You might think that an Italian who likes cooking is the ultimate cliché. Perhaps it is, but I love cooking everything, especially Asian dished (in the picture, the art of folding Chinese dumplings in Anshan, Liaoning Province).
My PhD was a good time to keep trying to perfect my sourdough bread and make pies and cakes I don't really eat.
I have always loved brews of camelia sinensis and a few years ago I started studying tea with the Canadian Tea Association. I mostly drink Chinese and Taiwanese teas, and particularly love oolong and raw pu’er teas, which I brew in dedicated teapots.
Doing a PhD is hard, but throwing a decent bowl on a pottery wheel comes to a close second. I have been doing pottery on and off for about two years. It helps to take my mind off things, while always offering new challenges!
In the photo, the creation I am most proud of so far. It might sound funny, but a (somewhat) cylindrical shape is much harder to make than a bowl!
Somehow, besides linguistics, I have managed to cultivate many passions over the years (in some I am decent, in others meh at best): yoga, hiking, travelling, photography, watercolors, and knitting. I also enjoy reading fiction and watching opera, ballet, and ice hockey (I am a big Caps fan).
In the picture, me and our family dog Kessy, hiking in the Alps. In the background a tributary of Arpy Lake, Morgex (Italy).
In the picture on top of the page, a banana on the Great Wall, Jinshanling (October 2019). *Not an intentional (ironic) rebuttal to Cattelan's Comedian.*